High elastic fibers, so-called elastomeric fibers made of rubber as well as of thermoplastic plastics, are known. Thus, the elastane fibers, which belong to the elastomeric fibers, exhibit unsatisfactory textile properties if they consist of bonded multifilaments.
The manufacture of such elastomer fibers requires special measures. As a rule, the fibers are subjected to a wrapping or twisting process before processing. Elastomers of this kind cannot be used alone since the textile planar structure exhibits a greasy appearance. Therefore, elastomeric fibers are always manufactured into a composite yarn together with different chemical fibers such as nylon or polyester (DE-A-24 12 592). This involves a high amount of labor and cost in many operational steps of the manufacture and results in poor economic efficiency.
Attempts of texturing by means of a carrier spindle have so far failed in that the elongation potential of the yarn reaches the limit and the yarn cannot be pulled over a twist pin. Other attempts to texture elastomers by means of friction units have so far not yielded a textured yarn.